In wireless communications networks, such as long term evolution (LTE) networks, the downlink signal transmitted from the network to the user equipment contains downlink and uplink control information. It is the responsibility of the user equipment or the user equipment simulator to correctly process the downlink and uplink control information in sufficient time to decode the corresponding downlink signal and to generate the corresponding uplink signal. In one exemplary multi-UE simulator architecture, a control DSP has been tasked with processing the control information in the downlink signal. The control DSP may have separate cores, which may be used to process uplink and downlink control information. Because the downlink signal includes both uplink and downlink control information, it is desirable to efficiently segregate the processing of this information so that the benefit of a multi-core DSP can be fully utilized.
In LTE networks, carrier aggregation further complicates the processing of the downlink signal. Carrier aggregation refers to multiple different signal carriers in the same or different frequency bands being used in the same downlink signal. When carrier aggregation is utilized and different processing resources are used to process downlink signals transmitted on different carriers, it is desirable to identify and separate signals on a per carrier basis. For example, in LTE carrier aggregation, a receiver that designated for carrier 1 may receive control information for carrier 1 and carrier 2. If the processing resources in a device, such as a multi-UE simulator, are segregated on a per carrier basis, it is desirable to have an efficient mechanism for delivering data carried on different signal carriers to the proper processing resources.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties, there exist a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for single and multi-carrier downlink and uplink control information resolution.